You've been branded a traitor. With Earth too crowded to accommodate yet another prison, they herded you onto a spaceship and launched you into exile. Meanwhile, beneath the surface of an obscure asteroid, robotic drones were already hard at work preparing your new home.

One crash landing later, things are really fouled up. Thanks to a radiation leak, the handful of you who survived the impact have at most a fortnight left. Your SOS over the ansible was met with dead air. The only survivor will be the AI who was supposed to oversee the colony; your only chance to leave something behind is to tell her your stories.

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The procreation sonnets IN SPACE!

Daughter: The AI. In spirit, anyway.Exile: You, obviously.Forsworn: Will you tell her the truth?

Each copy of the list of questions pertains to a convict who survived the crash landing; whenever a question says "you", it refers to this convict. During the course of the game, the players will collectively establish each convict's story as it happened, as they understand it, as they tell it to the AI, and as she understands it.

For each numbered question:

* Draw a card. * Look up its rank and choose one of its suggested themes. * Look up its suit and choose one of its suggested themes. * Emphasize these themes in your answer.

For lettered questions, do not draw a card, just answer them on the basis of the previous answers.

Once everyone has answered a question, discuss your answers with the other players and make changes if you want, then pass your list to the player on your left.

LIST OF QUESTIONS

1) What specific crime(s) were you convicted of? How high or low is the bar for "treason" in your society?

2) What (if anything) did you actually do that was related to your conviction? If so, then how illegal and/or immoral (by your own code and/or that of your society) was it?

3) What did you expect would be the outcome of your actions? What did your society expect? Was the actual outcome better, worse, or about the same?

4) What was your life like before these events? What was society like before these events?

a) How well do you understand yourself? How well do you understand your society? How well does your society understand you?

b) How well does the AI understand you? How well does she understand your society?

5) Did you leave behind anyone close to you? If so, then what do they know/think/believe about your situation, and does society consider them partly to blame? If not, then why not?

6) If not for the crash, how comfortable or uncomfortable do you think your exile would have been?

7) Do you think the crash was: * Accidental? * Intended by your society, effectively an execution? * Allowed by your society due to shoddy safety measures? * Due to sabotage by a suicidal fellow convict?

8) Do you think/hope that the ansible was broken, or that your SOS was heard and ignored?

c) What do you tell the AI about these things? How honest are you?

d) How honest does the AI think you are about these things?

e) After hearing your story, will the AI continue trying to contact your society? Will she try to conceal her survival?

f) After hearing from the AI (or not), will your society try to find her? Will they try to retrieve her, destroy her, alter her memory banks, or leave her alone?

CARD THEMES

The Fool (the Joker) is a wild card (pick any rank and suit you want).

I feel like there should be one or more "roleplay this part out in traditional fashion" parts added somewhere. Not sure how the pacing would work out, though; maybe just make it a blanket "do it whenever it feels appropriate" suggestion.

Each copy of the list of questions pertains to a convict who survived the crash landing; whenever a question says "you", it refers to this convict. During the course of the game, the players will collectively establish each convict's story as it happened, as they understand it, and as they tell it to the AI; they will also establish the nature of the AI, and how she understands the stories that she's told.

Questions c) and d) should be roleplayed in real time, with the player(s) directly opposite the convict playing the AI. Past events can also be roleplayed in this way, with the other players portraying significant NPCs, and the player(s) directly opposite the confict acting as GM if needed.